Luke 3:7-17; 21-22; January 12, 2025; The Baptism of our Lord
—–
“As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than me is coming.” – Luke 3:15-16
Now, that’s a role model!
A role model for us all in these days where everyone wants to be a star and the center of attention.
It would have been easy for John, by our standards, to lavish in their praises and to exaggerate his own gifts.
It would have been easy for John to say… “why, thank you! Hey…you want to touch this designer made camel hair cloth?”
But John does what we and our leaders often don’t, and he humbles himself so to exalt another.
For in humility and deference he puts himself aside for a greater cause. A greater purpose. For a greater person and mission in Jesus Christ.
Indeed, a model and lesson for us all today…
“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened…” – Luke 3:21
Did you catch that?
When Jesus ALSO had been baptized… as in, in the same water as the riff raff who were around him. Who had also come to be baptized that day.
So, even though Jesus was indeed greater than them and greater than John, Jesus still received John’s baptism… the same baptism as the crowds did, the same baptism that we still receive and celebrate in the sacrament here at Grace
For even though Heaven would open and God’s voice would declare that Jesus was God’s Son, the Savior, the exalted Son of Man, Jesus didn’t remove himself to get baptized in a river or pond by himself in isolation; for just as he wasn’t born in insolation, neither would he be baptized nor die in isolation, but rather, he did it in community with and for others. With and for us.
And that’s why we as Presbyterians don’t do private baptisms, my friends, but where and when possible, always in community. With the church surrounding.
…But who were these others precisely, these other people who were baptized on the same day and in the same water as Jesus?
Nobility perhaps? Men of honor and good reputation maybe? Nah, actually, the opposite.
Listen to these verses that come right before our first reading… about just who is in this crowd and what John calls them.
“John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”– Luke 3:7-8
“A Brood of Vipers!” Just verses before Jesus gets baptized, John calls these others who are around him, who were also there for baptism, a brood of vipers… A BROOD OF VIPERS!!! and it’s with these brood of vipers that Jesus is also baptized.
How about that, huh!?
Once more hammering home the point that Jesus came to save even the least of us. All of us who have never deserved it.
Now why exactly did John go into these guys so hard though? This brood of vipers? I mean, after all, it seems that on their own they had come into the wilderness with the desire to get baptized. Wasn’t that commendable? So, why chastise them? …let’s listen again:
Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor” for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” – Luke 3:8
It seems then that these folks came for the wrong reasons built on the wrong assumptions. On the flimsy foundation of nepotism. “We have Abraham as an ancestor.” We deserve it. We are entitled to it. And John rebukes them for looking for a short cut. An easy way out of perdition and into redemption.
For baptism wasn’t just a sprinkling for John, a quick fix to set things right. Rather, it was something someone did to change themself wholly. To change their ways. To seriously and authentically repent.
A lesson we sometimes forget when we do our [admittedly] cheery baptisms here (as much as I love them, how we celebrate the sign and seal of God’s grace).
The cool thing though is that this brood of vipers doesn’t leave when John calls them that, nor when their intentions were openly critiqued and corrected. Instead, they ask, “What then should we do?”
And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’
And in reply John said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ – Luke 3:10-14
Three distinct groups then – tax collectors, soldiers, and the Children of Abraham – all ask the same question. “What then should we do” and each, in return, are asked by John to make radical changes irrespective of their station.
“What should we do?”
And this, my friends, is the critical question for us as well, irrespective of our station, whether we are nobodies or have had praise upon praise lavished upon us!
John warns us that we shouldn’t be resting on our laurels. Nor our affiliation, religion, or the ancestors who might have raised us in the Christian faith.
Rather, each of us, brood of vipers as we are, should be asking the question, and asking it sincerely, “What should we do?”
What should we do if we are to inherit the Kingdom of God tomorrow? Or better yet, what must we do if we are to inhabit the Kingdom of God today?
And I think what we have to do is be open to change. Open to correction. Willing even to take criticism if it is going to get us off our butts and into action. Humbling ourselves and deferring our wants for a greater service and a greater purpose to God’s greater mission, in serving the greatest person who ever was born and human: Jesus the Christ.
And how does Jesus ask us to serve him? How does Jesus ask us to love him? What should we do, my friends?
Love and serve others.
Love and serve others!
Thomas Merton (monk, mystic, theologian… and one of Chip Rupert’s favorites) writes, “our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.”
Isn’t that great? And isn’t that correct?
So, my friends…
- “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”
- “Do not extort from anyone by threats or false accusation, or by lying.”
- “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”
So let it be.
Amen
